Official review/preview Q&A thread

Yeah, the EA of cynical film license knock-offs and sports franchise updates is well and truly behind us. Let's hope they don't get a little too popular again and have a relapse :)

Edwin


Yeah, the EA of cynical film license knock-offs and sports franchise updates is well and truly behind us. Let's hope they don't get a little too popular again and have a relapse :)

Was Peter Moore their only management change? Perhaps Nitro would know, but was there a major reshuffling at EA? It seems like it was all uphill after Moore.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

I'm no expert on their internal affairs but they've certainly done a huge amount of reshuffling since Riccitiello took over - he set up four new labels, two of which have now been merged, and I'm sure heads would have rolled in the process...

Some crazed genius fool has just done a Killzone 2 beta hands-on. Oh wait that was me.

http://games.kikizo.com/features/killzone-2-multiplayer-beta-hands-on-preview-p1.asp

Edwin


Some crazed genius fool has just done a Killzone 2 beta hands-on. Oh wait that was me.

http://games.kikizo.com/features/killzone-2-multiplayer-beta-hands-on-preview-p1.asp

My condolences.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Not a fan of the 'Zone? :)

Adam's Call of Duty: World at War review is live -

http://games.kikizo.com/reviews/xbox360/call-of-duty-world-at-war-p1.asp

Edwin


Not a fan of the 'Zone? :)

Adam's Call of Duty: World at War review is live -

http://games.kikizo.com/reviews/xbox360/call-of-duty-world-at-war-p1.asp

Killzone 1 sucked, even by console FPS standards. And personally I cant stand the PS controller for FPS's. However, World at War... nom nom.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

The renaissance of EA we are witnessing is due to John Riccitiello coming back to the firm and shaking things up. It is he who has a newfound focus on quality and everything happening is a direct result of his decisions. He is behind acquiring BioWare, for example. Peter Moore is just the guy looking after the sports side (which has also seen improvements).

Incidentally, does anyone even use this forum any more? Just don't know what we're doing wrong here.

Few people are, funnily enough cutting away the win a game thing just killed things off, and i thought people were here for the fun of it

Vx Chemical


Few people are, funnily enough cutting away the win a game thing just killed things off, and i thought people were here for the fun of it

Or it could be that gamers tend to play games in November. It happens a lot, huge games get released, forum dies down. After the "new" wears off people will be back.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

I blame the Jews, always controlling the media...

Seriously though, it's probably a combination of several things.  Weak networking for one thing, Kikizo forums needs more affiliates.  The name doesn't help, Kikizo.  That's bad marketting.  Kikizo forums won't pop up if you search "videogame forum" for example.  There's a reason all the big ones have such generic names.  Most people who join forums are people looking for forums.  I bet much of the trafic the main site is from unique users who searched for some specific content with Google.  They'll find your GTA videos because you have "GTA videos".  You don't have a "videogame forum", you have a "kikizo forum". Maybe if you rename the forums as "Kikizo Videogame Forum" and/or "Kikizo Entertainment Forum".  Or make whatever changes so Google recognizes Kikizo as a videogame forum.  I don't know if that means changing the web address...

Then you have the unique dynamic of these forums.  We all know eachother and frankly we've ran out of shit to talk about.  We know eachother so well that we've become predictable.  Not only are members predictable but we're all so knowledgeable on videogames that we have nothing to offer eachother.  At the same time we're not very friendly to newcomers.  Although this is minor considering the scarcity in which they arrive. 

I could be mistaken but I get the impression that internet forums in general have past their peak.  The novelty is gone.  I bet many places are seeing negative growth in the forums compared to their main site. 

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

Thanks for the feedback. I could have sworn I already have video games in the title but apparenty not, I'll change that.

We need full comment integration with the main site. We're working on that. We're also working on a better reward system.

Regardless, the traffic on the main site just isn't converting over to the forum in any remotely significant ratio and despite the pretty slick forum these days it's just bewildering that usage has gone down.

Anyway this is all a bit OT.

I think it would help a lot if you put a link to the forum at the end of all of your articles such as "discuss Call of Duty 5 in the forums" or something like that.  If someone just came to the site for a specific article, the only forum link they see is in the way upper right, and they probably don't even notice it.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

Yeah we had that before, loco - we had latest forum topics on all articles, although we had to take it down when the forum was upgraded, and are working on reintegrating it.

Hah, there, we are we've answered a few questions we already knew. Sometimes I can't see the forest for the fucking trees because there's too much happening. Too much everywhere. Loads of just stuff. Help.

change the kikio home page to the fourm home page. problem solved!

you could probably add more keywords to the meta tags too

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

Hey Kikizo staff...anything big happening December 4th? Anything at all?

Nice preview on Killzone 2 there btw.

Tell me tho...is Killzone 2 gonna be something to brag about outside its visuals or are Playstation enthusiast just in heat for there own wave of FPS gold.

A few other questions:
How is the destructible surroundings? After Call of Duty rather static maps it was nice to play Gears 2 and see chunks break off. Hows does Killzone compare?

Color? Is the world shrouded in darkness all around or is there any sign of life in this game?

Guns- How many and can they be picked up if droppable? Does class effect use of certain weapons? CoD and Tom Clancy games certainly give you a nice arsenal to toy with.

Character Movement- Walking, running, jumping, sprinting, crawling, prone, laying down, standing, cover etc etc whats included and does it perform well. One thing I hated about CoD 4 was that from my view I was hidden decently enough crouched by a window, but from everyone elses view i may as well been standing in the open with how exposed I was.

Some sites have comments under each article, others have links to the forums corresponding topic.

The best I've seen imo is having the forum posts reproduced at the bottom of the articles, so you can just scroll down, read and quick reply a response.

You'd get tonnes of traffic in the forums then, as people get curious to see what else is inside.

Dont worry Adam, you'll get your head above water again!   I'm impressed at how much more the main site is producing these days, in terms of quality review, hands-on and interviews etc.  You need a few editorials too I think.

What I really miss is the video interviews of olde.  They were unique to Kikizo back then, and the main reason I stuck around.  Why did you stop doing them - because you pissed off Peter Moore that one time?? 

Also stuck around here because other big site's forums were so busy and full of idiots flaming each other.  We only flame each other when we feel like it.

  @Johnny

I'd say Killzone is destined for 8.5/10 plus - what I've seen so far doesn't reinvent the wheel, but I haven't played anything as gripping for months. It can be brutal as fuck though.

RE. destructability, there are exploding barrels and the stone cladding around some pillars can be shot to bits, but expect lots of unbreakable wooden scaffolds and the like. It's no Battlefield Bad Company, in short. Multiplayer maps tend to be well lit, but it can be hard to pick out other players against the scenery. Unless they're playing Helghast, as discussed in the preview :)

The guns are quite familiar but satisfyingly meaty - two battle rifles (one scoped), a shotgun, submachine gun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, two pistols and a light machine gun, off the top of my head. You can choose any (unlocked) weapon to start off a match with regardless of class, and guns can be picked up in the field, though you won't keep new acquisitions post-match.

You can't lie prone but you can crouch. It's a very cover-focussed game - try bum-rushing an entrenched squad and they'll be scraping your remains off the ceiling :) I've managed to storm a room single-handed a grand total of once so far, and that was down to the Devil's luck rather than skill.

EDIT. I tell a lie - you are limited to certain weapons by certain classes.

I'm no expert on their internal affairs but they've certainly done a huge amount of reshuffling since Riccitiello took over - he set up four new labels, two of which have now been merged, and I'm sure heads would have rolled in the process...

Undoubtedly.

But then, you have to look at how much of that is Riccitiello taking the reins, and how much of that is simply the fact that they no longer have Probst around to foul everything up. I mean, if any other major company, in any major industry had a CEO who's business model was as stagnant and outdated as Probst's EA, their cheif execs would have been dropped in a year and a half, no less a decade and a half.

To look at EA's recent success in a broader scope, Riccitiello knows how to run a company, but his biggest successes with the company have simply been to eliminate old failing policies. Their tradition of talent stripping, aquiring and consolidating a studio was no longer effective, so they ditched it, and have a good thing going with their new city-state model. Probst stepping down was almost as good for EA, as retiring Kutaragi was for Sony.

...Well... with the difference being that they didn't have to create an entirely new title to leave Probst with his dignity.

"I'll wager sixty finest English pence that you defeat Big Sister in the end by shagging her to death."

Kikizo.com - Excellence in Journalism

Edwin


  @Johnny

I'd say Killzone is destined for 8.5/10 plus - what I've seen so far doesn't reinvent the wheel, but I haven't played anything as gripping for months. It can be brutal as fuck though.

RE. destructability, there are exploding barrels and the stone cladding around some pillars can be shot to bits, but expect lots of unbreakable wooden scaffolds and the like. It's no Battlefield Bad Company, in short. Multiplayer maps tend to be well lit, but it can be hard to pick out other players against the scenery. Unless they're playing Helghast, as discussed in the preview :)

The guns are quite familiar but satisfyingly meaty - two battle rifles (one scoped), a shotgun, submachine gun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, two pistols and a light machine gun, off the top of my head. You can choose any (unlocked) weapon to start off a match with regardless of class, and guns can be picked up in the field, though you won't keep new acquisitions post-match.

You can't lie prone but you can crouch. It's a very cover-focussed game - try bum-rushing an entrenched squad and they'll be scraping your remains off the ceiling :) I've managed to storm a room single-handed a grand total of once so far, and that was down to the Devil's luck rather than skill.

EDIT. I tell a lie - you are limited to certain weapons by certain classes.

8.5? It doesnt really matter though, it will score high. Resistance 1 and 2 scored in the 9's for the most part and they are garbage. As long as fanboys want a game to score high it seems most mags and sites will do so.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Well if you rate it compared to other PS3 games, it's gonna be pretty damn high.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

locopuyo


Well if you rate it compared to other PS3 games, it's gonna be pretty damn high.

That would be fucking stupid. It should be compared to all console FPS's on both current-gen systems. Just by rule of using the PS controller for a shooter it should score no higher than a 7.5.

Just like apparently Killzone 1 pulled off 7's and such, but compared to other console FPS's at the time (Halo 1 and 2, Riddick, Black, Rainbow 6 3, Star Wars Republican Commando etc) it deserved 4's at the most.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Review score don't mean shit. We already know this.

Anybody see what score PDZ got here?

Halo sucks.  At least Killzone has a good art direction.  It's gritty.  If I had to die for some stupid cause, I wouldn't want everything to look like a gay pride parade.  I would want things to look badass.  Halo is for pussies.  Pussy art direction and pussy gameplay.  It took me 5 years to figure this out.  Fuck the control scheme, war isn't supposed to be comfortable.  If Killzone was shitty it was due to the PS2 being obsolete, it had nothing to do with the controller.  Online sucked (if it had any online) and the game ran like shit.  Killzone 2 on the other hand will spank halo like doing so is the cure for cancer.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

Agent Ghost


Halo sucks.  At least Killzone has a good art direction.  It's gritty.  If I had to die for some stupid cause, I wouldn't want everything to look like a gay pride parade.  I would want things to look badass.  Halo is for pussies.  Pussy art direction and pussy gameplay.  It took me 5 years to figure this out.  Fuck the control scheme, war isn't supposed to be comfortable.  If Killzone was shitty it was due to the PS2 being obsolete, it had nothing to do with the controller.  Online sucked (if it had any online) and the game ran like shit.  Killzone 2 on the other hand will spank halo like doing so is the cure for cancer.

Cant you wait until the night to start drinking? Any FPS on PS3 is auto-fail, and thats not an opinion, the controller makes it a fact.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Cant you wait until the night to start drinking? Any FPS on PS3 is auto-fail, and thats not an opinion, the controller makes it a fact.

Your face is an auto fail.  For the record, saying that I started drinking in the morning implies that I stopped drinking last night.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

When you're constantly flipping back and forth between shooters on 360 and PS3 then yes... the PS3 controller can feel terrible.

I haven't replaced my 360 yet though so right now playing FPS games on PS3 doesn't seem that bad at all.

Killzone 2... like it or not... is going to be badass. It's got some of the best art direction going, a stellar budget, an apparantly cool-as-fuck multiplayer component and the benefit of hindsight.

It's got to be better than Resistance/2 and Halo 3 at any rate.

Nitro


When you're constantly flipping back and forth between shooters on 360 and PS3 then yes... the PS3 controller can feel terrible.

I haven't replaced my 360 yet though so right now playing FPS games on PS3 doesn't seem that bad at all.

Killzone 2... like it or not... is going to be badass. It's got some of the best art direction going, a stellar budget, an apparantly cool-as-fuck multiplayer component and the benefit of hindsight.

It's got to be better than Resistance/2 and Halo 3 at any rate.

Shooters from the 90s are better than resistance/2 and halo 3.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

immortaldanmx

Edwin


@Johnny

I'd say Killzone is destined for 8.5/10 plus - what I've seen so far doesn't reinvent the wheel, but I haven't played anything as gripping for months. It can be brutal as fuck though.

RE. destructability, there are exploding barrels and the stone cladding around some pillars can be shot to bits, but expect lots of unbreakable wooden scaffolds and the like. It's no Battlefield Bad Company, in short. Multiplayer maps tend to be well lit, but it can be hard to pick out other players against the scenery. Unless they're playing Helghast, as discussed in the preview :)

The guns are quite familiar but satisfyingly meaty - two battle rifles (one scoped), a shotgun, submachine gun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, two pistols and a light machine gun, off the top of my head. You can choose any (unlocked) weapon to start off a match with regardless of class, and guns can be picked up in the field, though you won't keep new acquisitions post-match.

You can't lie prone but you can crouch. It's a very cover-focussed game - try bum-rushing an entrenched squad and they'll be scraping your remains off the ceiling :) I've managed to storm a room single-handed a grand total of once so far, and that was down to the Devil's luck rather than skill.

EDIT. I tell a lie - you are limited to certain weapons by certain classes.

8.5? It doesnt really matter though, it will score high. Resistance 1 and 2 scored in the 9's for the most part and they are garbage. As long as fanboys want a game to score high it seems most mags and sites will do so.

Trust me mate, what I've played thus far is worth your time and money. Just be prepared to die a lot :) And if you don't take back what you said about R2 I shall scream and scream and scream until your head and/or testicles explode.

I never quite understand the difficulties people have with the PS3 pad. The Xbox 360 pad is better, yes, but the gap between them is hardly so severe as to have an a priori bearing on review scores. We aren't talking about the PSP's analog nub here, people.

Halo Wars preview/interview and Shaun White Snowboarding review are up. All hail Will Freeman!

http://games.kikizo.com/features/halo-wars-ensemble-interview-p1.asp
http://games.kikizo.com/reviews/xbox360/shaun-white-snowboarding-p1.asp

See if you can spot my glaring typo on the second page of the first one.

It doesnt matter if the gap is "severe". Why would I pay the same price for a less enjoyable experience.

Heres an example of what Im trying to say. Resistance's campaign was decent, and  The online was abysmal, few people had mics, the weapons all fired slowly (as in the projectile speed, same as Gears of War, which is why I hate it online). CoD 4 had the most amazing online component for a console since Halo 2. 90% of players had mics, the weapons fired like weapons should, there were no major hit detection or balancing issues. Both games were $60. Guess which one I regret buying? Hint: its not the 1 enjoyed playing online religiously.

Edit: I didnt need the second page. You called the Ghost a "hoverbike".

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

But it bloody well is a hoverbike :D all right, so it has a couple of big cannon things on the front and it looks like a giant purple nappie, but the wretched thing hovers, doesn't it? Strewth. Keep looking!

COD4 is indeed better than R2, which is why COD4 got higher review scores. But R2 is far from a trainwreck, and while its online component doesn't push the envelope it's still a good (and sizeable) laugh. You'll find projectile speeds vary depending on the weapon - the Marksman's travel very fast, the Bullseye's are pretty slow.

Besides, I'm not sure how setting R2 against COD4 helps your point about the PS3 pad. R2 is a Sony exclusive, after all, so the comparison with the 360 controller doesn't arise. If you were to compare the PS3 and 360 versions of COD4, that would be fair enough, though I still wouldn't say the Dualshock exactly cripples the experience.

Edwin


But it bloody well is a hoverbike :D all right, so it has a couple of big cannon things on the front and it looks like a giant purple nappie, but the wretched thing hovers, doesn't it? Strewth. Keep looking!

COD4 is indeed better than R2, which is why COD4 got higher review scores. But R2 is far from a trainwreck, and while its online component doesn't push the envelope it's still a good (and sizeable) laugh. You'll find projectile speeds vary depending on the weapon - the Marksman's travel very fast, the Bullseye's are pretty slow.

Besides, I'm not sure how setting R2 against COD4 helps your point about the PS3 pad. R2 is a Sony exclusive, after all, so the comparison with the 360 controller doesn't arise. If you were to compare the PS3 and 360 versions of COD4, that would be fair enough, though I still wouldn't say the Dualshock exactly cripples the experience.

My point on how slow the weapons were applied to all of them. Even the automatic projectile-based weapons (The M1A5 or whatever) shoot so slow that you need to lead a moving target at point blank. Real projectiles dont move that slow, so I dont expect my in-game ones to do so. This is also the same problem with Gears of War.

I used CoD 4 because the superior console version is the 360's. I was using CoD as a point of what a good FPS was and Resistance as a point of what a mediocre FPS was.

I guess thats the difference of opinion. I personally detest the PS controller for FPS's. I would say M/K shits on both, but PC gaming is almost dead(aside from MMO's).

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

immortaldanmx


I guess thats the difference of opinion. I personally detest the PS controller for FPS's. I would say M/K shits on both, but PC gaming is almost dead(aside from MMO's).

PC gaming is not dead or dying, at least not in the way we think. Retail sales have been stagnant since 2001, and in a way that area is dying. But digital distribution is seeing more than a 200% increase each year. Digital distribution is not tracked by NPD and other similar analysts, which is why there is a misconception here. Steam by itself has an active user base that outnumbers Xbox Live by ~4 Million users. Considering the dozens of other digital distribution platforms out there, there's a lot of sales that go undocumented. With roughly 300 million online PC gamers out there, you can definitely bet digital distribution will expand, and in the long run probably phase out retail PC games.

But it bloody well is a hoverbike :D all right, so it has a couple of big cannon things on the front and it looks like a giant purple nappie, but the wretched thing hovers, doesn't it? Strewth. Keep looking!

Wouldn't a bike have two wheels?  You know biiiicycle, which is where the word bike is derived from.  More like a hovering unicycle.  Actually I just noticed that the Ghost doesn't have any wheels, so it doesn't cycle.  We should call it the dike.  Better yet forget about conventional naming conventions and just give it a badass name like "Ghost".

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

Digital distribution is not tracked, and until it is you cant say PC games are doing well. Look at Crysis. The flagship PC FPS of the year, destroyed sales wise by CoD, Halo, and even Gears.

PC gaming is becoming obsolete because of developers. Games arent made on PC then ported, theyre made for consoles then ported. Every year the majority of Publishers cut PC releases and opt for console versions as the lead, if not the exclusive, version. With consoles catching up to PCs and the high cost of maintaining a high-end gaming PC its only a matter of time before PC gaming is dead.

And your 300 million is an inflated joke. That must include non-gamers who play online games for free (pogo, flash games, etc). If there were really 300 million PC gamers Epic wouldnt be making comments about going console only, and PC sales wouldnt be piss poor. Also, Steam accounts dont translate into sales.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Only the really big budget games and casual games are made for PC anymore.  You don't see the craploads of mediocre FPS games like you did in the 90s.  Those are all made for consoles now.  Most people have consoles now, so you don't get the random people looking at boxes and buying random games for PCs, they buy them for their console.  

Also wth consoles, like the xbox 360, having online play, a controller that makes FPS's playable, HD graphics and all sorts of fancy stuff that makes gaming as good as on PC and better in some ways, a lot of people are buying games for the console instead of PC often.   Then they think it probably isn't worth it to get or upgrade to a PC that can play the other games they would be getting because it just isn't worth the cost anymore.  

But PC gaming isn't going to die though.  MMO's are still strong on PC along with games by Valve and Blizzard.  MMO's will grow and probably become dominant on consoles, and valve is putting all their games on consoles,but don't think PC gaming will get much smaller than it is now.

Eventually all PC gaming is going to be through digital distribution, console too though.  

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

As Unlucky said, PC gaming isnt dying, its just moving on.  The argument crops up often...

Epic can go suck balls with some of the comments they've been making about moving to consoles altogether.  Sure they've done well with Gears, but the PC has been good to them over the years.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/second-hand-game-sales-are-a-huge-issue-epic

First they were complaining of piracy on PC, now they're complaining about rentals on consoles saying people should not be able to sell their games, because it then means someone else wiil get money instead of them.

Just shows now Epic have had a taste of the big bucks, they won't turn back.

All the while companies like Valve still believe in the PC - and Steam of course.  The PC still has its advantages - no matter how many of them consoles will adopt.  Community, flexibility, freedom.  Makes for less of a standardised gaming experience, but opens up new options.  The overall cost of running a PC including games is the same in the longterm, after the initial outlay for the machine you save about £20 per game.

The last 360 game I actually bought was Pro Evo 6 years ago - I mostly just rent console games these days since they're expensive and short enough to complete in a week.  Whereas PC games are cheaper new than console games 2nd hand.  Many of them bought through Steam too.

So in my view PC gaming is changing form, but only getting stronger. Its not just the big budget and casual games either, there are a tonne of great independent games surviving through digital distribution too, and usually have something unique to offer with zealous followings.

I just came back from EB games with my copy of L4D PC.  I wouldn't want this game on a console, accuracy and reaction time are crucial.  And just think of the mods...

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

I'm just off to buy a microphone - played through the first level on my own, on normal.  So far its quite the thrill ride.  Already so many unique moments, especially at the end, the AI director really brings it.